Friday, July 11, 2008

Whalers found innocent, Greenpeace activists are charged with theft

At the time, a public prosecutor in Japan had announced he was investigating claims that workers on whaling ships were embezzling whale meat and selling it to restaurant owners. The investigation was prompted by an undercover investigation carried out by Greenpeace, which said the activities were a misuse of public funds as the meat was a by-product of publicly funded research.

On 20 June, two Greenpeace activists involved in the undercover investigation were arrested and held without charge. Today, they were charged with theft and trespass.

Why? The Greenpeace activitsts had been told that employees of Kyodo Senpaku - a for-profit company that carries out whaling for the Institute of Cetacean Research - shipped whale meat to themselves in boxes that were taken off the whaling vessels at the end of each expedition. To verify the claims, Greenpeace emplyees entered a postal company's warehouse and took a box which had been shipped by a crew member to his own address. Inside, Greenpeace found 23.5 kg of salted whale meat.

I did wonder at the time if the discovery made the undercover investigation legal. If the box had contained cocaine, would the situation be different? Should Greenpeace have handed the investigation over to the police before removing the box? They must have feared the police would not go the distance unless the alleged embezzlement was made public.

In the event, the public prosecutor was given access to Greenpeace's informants and on 20 June, declared he had found no evidence of embezzlement. According to Greenpeace, the investigation of Kyodo Senpaku has been dropped. The organisation says there are "powerful forces within the Japanese establishment [that] are attempting to silence legitimate peaceful protest, in order to protect the so-called scientific whaling programme".

Greenpeace activists are used to being arrested, it's part of how they get their message across. But I'd be curious to know what led the public prosecutor to drop the investigation into Kyodo Senpaku.

Theres nothing surprising in all this...peaceful voices and those who wanna prove the truth have always been suppressed in all countries.Let it be a lesson to all defaulters who wanna exploit earth's resouces ! Kudos to Greenpeace which has been on the front line protecting earth's nature!!

I'd be surprised if the Yakuza didn't play any role in this. In fact, Greenpeace might want to specifically focus on that if they can get evidence. It would bring a lot more attention, and Yakuza isn't stupid enough to go after a globally recognized NGO with violence.

I live in Japan, can read the news here, and honestly the western media doesn't seem to have a clue about this.

The prosecutors investigated the Greenpeace allegations, but it became apparent that the meat hadn't been stolen by the whaling crew members. The whaling company has a recompensation scheme that includes gifting employees with whale meat after their months at sea come to an end. The employees said this, and the company itself said this.

At the same time, for some unknown reason the Greenpeace clowns had taken it upon themselves to pretend that they were authorized investigators, and pinched a box of whale meat in transit. This involved trespass and theft. This is why they were arrested. If they had not trespassed and they had not stolen the meat, they would not have been arrested.

The fact that it took them a whole month to come forward with their "embezzlement" allegations seems to indicate that there is much more to the story than the Greenpeace spin has it.

It's pretty transparent to everyone here that Greenpeace were desperately trying to manufacture a scandal for the Japanese public, but forgot that the Japanese public doesn't want to believe in whale meat conspiracy theories as much as Greenpeace activitists do. The fantasy world of Greenpeace and the world of Japan are two different places.

The clowns who have been charged, and now face prison sentences will perhaps finally come to realise this while they sit in prison.

When are the Japanese going to reveal to the world the new revelations they have gathered from their Cetacean Research? I don't like, actually hate Greenpeace, but this is one area I totally agree with them on. Research my butt, talk about Japanese hypocrites.

Anonymous from Japan, to give Greenpeace activists jail sentences strikes me as being unusually heavy handed, and inconsistent in application of the law in Japan.

Whether one disagrees or agrees with Greenpeace on the whale meat embezzlement issue, there is a context to this activity that's not based on personal gain.

The basis of charging and punishing somebody for theft, is usually based on the idea that these activities are being done for personal gain. Sure, theft is theft, but context and motive should really be a factor in punishment. In many cases in Western countries, when activists break the law in undertaking protests (as long as no-one is hurt) this is usually taken into consideration when punishment is administered. In this context Greenpeace actually thought they were exposing a crime, even if it is proved that they were wrong.

Also, the Japanese police have behaved very inconsistently. In the case of what was claimed to be an attempted murder earlier this year, of Captain Paul Watson, of Sea Shepherd, from shots believed to have been fired from the whalers ship - it seems to have not even have been investigated by Japanese police.

There was a clear evidence trail and motive for Paul Watson's attempted murder (usually all the things required to run a case), including photographic evidence of gunshot flashs from the whale ship.

If a claim of attempted murder by Japanese whalers is not even investigated/or given scant regard, - and yet we see Greenpeace activists possibly facing jail time for lesser crime than attmpeted murder, while attempting to uncover a possible whale meat embezzlement - how do you expect people overseas are going to view the Japanese justice system when it comes to the whale issue?

It's clearly biased, and doesn't meet the normal standards of justice for a modern democracy.

Like it was mentioned here; when will the "research" results get released? Im very curious, because if people follow news, the european union boycotted the whaling nation of island here, because here, its an economic fact the whaling tourism dominates the meat price, which is dwindling. barely some percent of the population has ever tasted cetacean. Island loses millions if not billions of national income in the 21:th century to continue.Euopeans dont want to eat cetacean meat, but civilian experts in the US and asia maybe knows better...

I support greenpeace, everyone want to know what marvelous research results japan got in this area, still no information. Just an great loophole in international laws?

What will Japan do when the whales are extinct? just sit there with an expression of suprise on the faces? I always hear the humans are the supreme intelligent life form, im very doubtful about that claim since my youth, that's alot of years.

George Carlin, may he rest in peace, would have had something to say at this point.Greenpeace, imho, is a group of enthusiastic, ethical not very smart people who have a lot of free time on their hands. You can't save the planet by devoting your energy to whales. Whales are not people! On a side not, apes are also not people.Do some AIDS research or sth instead.

The other question is whether Antarctic minke whale maybe crashing in numbers.

Although protest ships may have interfered with whale catching in the 2007/08 season, Japan's whale "researchers" also said that part of the reason for not catching so many whales is that they did not see quite so many of them.

But they said it is premature to draw conclusions from that about overall whale numbers.

But would the Japanese government acknowledge a population crash if it did occur? The Japanese government more-or-less admit that Japanese whaling is more about national pride than anything else, and they are prepared to go to great lengths to save face.

The IWC figures for Antarctic minke are 20 years out of date with the IWC admitting "The Commission is unable to provide reliable estimates at the present time."

It's too early to tell if the Antarctic minke are in trouble from one seasons observations, but with low numbers reported by Japan in 2007-08 season, and krill numbers dropping (the major food source for minke) - if observed numbers are low next season it maybe an indication of a downward trend.

Yes, Greenpeace is acting beacause no one else do, and no they're not lacking ethics and many supporters got ordinary jobs and studies as well, me myself are working/student. People traditionally believe supporters and workers for Greenpeace and WWF as well are kids with lacking education and way to much freetime. In contrast to PETA Greenpeace and WWF got marine biologists/biologists and other resources, i learnt PETA dont work in this way.The myth about the extinction of cetaceans to be unharmful to ocean ecosystems are kinda ironic and ignorant as usual among those with lacking education, i dont hesitate to say that. The oceans will change to unknown consequenses.Microorganisms is a start to be affected.

They were arrested for trespassing and theft, not for exposing fraud. The illegality of an action has nothing to do with its context; there is no context in which breaking and entering, and stealing private property, is not illegal. This is common law and has been for centuries. Those Greenpeace workers are criminals by universal standards.

On the context point, initially the Greenpeace activists handed over the whale meat to to the Public Prosecutor who initially agreed with Greenpeace that there was sufficient evidence of wrong doing. That's not common theft. lol

And also, why did an official of the Japanese Fisheries agency claim that whale meat was never given to crew? And why did the crew lie about the contents of the boxes of whale meat - saying they contained cardboard? And why did the whaling company, Kyodo Senpaku, change their story several times? It seems very dodgey.

As foreign observers, it raises the question whether political pressure was applied to the Public Prosecutor for face-saving of the Japanese government and whale industry. Also, given the Japanese governments track record on this issue, it seems likely that the Greenpeace activists will be scapegoated for exposing a fraud that is embarrassing to the government.

In most democratic countries the role of activists is recognized, and they are just given slaps on the wrist as token punishment, even if they are charged.

If these Greenpeace activists get jailed for trying to expose a fraud, then they should be considered political prisoners.

Time and time again the Japanese government lies. They lie about why they are whaling, they lie to the people about whale meat in stores (saying it doesn't come from harvesting, it comes from whales washed up on shores), they lie about scientific research needed (so why hunt over 800 whales for that?), they lie to Greenpeace folks (crew is allowed to take meat, or not). They lie in the IWC meetings (see history of meeting minutes online) Enough already!!! Why can't everyone see what the small masses do? Simply told, they cannot tell the truth.

The ?moratorium? on whaling is actually described as a ?pause? by the IWC in numerous places on their website. The IWC?s only interest in whale conservation is for a future resumption of commercial whaling activities the IWC regularly condemn the SSCS actions. The whalers are paid a bonus of legal research whale meat, which they legally mailed home the research company warrants no further investigation because they didn?t break any laws. Article 8 of the IWC requires that the meat be used after the research is preformed. If you have a problem it?s with the IWC?s lax rules what the Japanese are doing is perfectly legal.

(IWC excerpts) The IWC and Scientific Permits ?As part of their response to the decision for a pause in commercial whaling, some member governments have implemented major research programmers which may include the sampling of whales caught under special permits which the Convention allows them to grant?.

http://www.iwcoffice.org/commission/iwcmain.htm

?A major area of discussion in recent years has been the issuing of permits by member states for the killing of whales for scientific purposes. The use of such permits is not new. The right to issue them is enshrined in Article VIII of the 1946 Convention. Whilst member nations must submit proposals for review, in accordance with the Convention, it is the member nation that ultimately decides whether or not to issue a permit, and ***this right overrides any other Commission regulations including the moratorium and sanctuaries***. Article VIII also requires that ***the animals be utilized ***once the scientific data have been collected?.